[b]Player Name: [/b]Bright Ops [b]Character You Wish To Play: [/b]Loki Laufeyson [b]Moral Alignment:[/b] Hero [b]Affiliation:[/b] Himself, the Folk (Humanity) [b]Character Origin & Backstory:[/b] Many years ago, when Bor, ruler of Asgard, was battling frost giants, he followed a wounded giant to a powerful sorcerer that was waiting for him. The sorcerer caught him unaware, turning Bor into snow. Bor's son, Odin, found his father as he was blowing away; Bor begged Odin to find a sorcerer to free him, but Odin made no attempt to save his father. Bor cursed Odin saying that he would take in the son of a fallen king and raise it as his own. Not a week later, Odin himself led the Asgardians into battle against the Frost Giants and killed Laufey, who was the King, in personal combat. After slaying Laufey, Odin found a small Asgardian-sized child hidden within the primary stronghold of the Frost Giants. The child was Loki and Laufey had kept him hidden from his people due to his shame over his son's small size. Odin took the boy, out of a combination of pity, to appease his father, and because he was the son of a worthy adversary slain in honorable combat, and raised him as his son. For a number of years, Loki tried to live up to his father's expectations and earn his rightful place in Asgard. His parentage as the child of a frost giant shadowed his dealings with the other members of Asgard, but it was his personality and personal strengths that truly distanced him from his peers; The Asgardians valued great strength, tenacity, and bravery in battle above all things while Loki instead favored intelligence and trickery to win his battles. While such conduct was oftentimes considered dishonorable by the more 'honor bound' (Read: Thick headed) Asgardians, Loki did earn a grudging respect for himself after he was able to trick an enemy builder into building Asgard a mighty defensive wall for nothing without harming the honor of the Asgardians; The builder himself had in fact been one of the Rock Folk (troll) trying to con the Asgardians by presenting himself as a member of the Folk instead of his true form in order to secure the payment of the Goddess of Desire for a bride alongside control of the Sun and the Moon. Things changed the day that, as a joke, Loki cut off Sif's hair. Threatened with violence, Loki promised to fetch replacement hair from the dwarves. Having a word with the Sons of Ivaldi in order to have the hair created, Loki decided to try and earn some goodwill with the rest of Asgard by having two other gifts created; A magical ship that could sink down enough to be fitted into a pocket and a spear that would never miss its target. As he was about to return to Asgard with these gifts, Loki ran into a dwarf named Eitri who was insulted that Loki had gone to the Sons of Ivaldi over him. Loki challenged him to do better and Eitri accepted; the terms of the bet was that Eitri would make three gifts of his own and all six would be presented to the Asgardians who would judge which gifts were better. If Loki lost, Eitri would claim his head for daring to disregard his abilities. As Eitri and his brother work the forge, Loki shape-shifted into a mayfly and attempted to sabotage the pair's efforts by biting Eitri's brother while he works the bellows. The first two attempts failed to produce results, but while working on the final treasure (A hammer) Loki bit Eitri's brother right between the eyes, causing him to stop pumping the bellows in pain for a moment and causing the hammer to be flawed (Its handle was shorter then it was intended, resulting in it only being a one handed weapon). Despite the flaw in his work, the Asgardian's judged Eitri's gifts to be the better. As the dwarf went to claim his price of Loki's head, Loki managed to save himself by claiming that while his head was Eitri's, his neck was still his and thus he had no right to harm it. Unable to find a way to remove Loki's head without harming his neck, Eitri was enraged to find himself cheated of his prize and instead decided to sow Loki's mouth shut much to the amusement of the various Asgardian's who had been witness to the presentation of the gifts. Eitri's magic would leave eight silver scars on his face, four on each side of his mouth. This was the moment that Loki finally realized that he would never truly be considered one of the Asgardian's. While it was true that not all of them laughed at his pain, not a single one of them attempted to help him in the slightest. This was the moment that Loki vowed that he would see them all fall. Over the years Loki would subtlety undermine and weaken the Asgardian's from within, often by using their natures against them to either harm their relationships with each other or to lose powerful artifices to their enemies; All the while, he would carefully be gathering together allies from the various enemies of the Asgardian's, more often then not by making them think they were the ones getting the upper hand against the Trickster. Loki would have numerous children during this period. By his wife Sigyn he would have twin sons named Vali and Narvi; By the sorceress Angrboda he would have his daughter Hel, Fenris the wolf demon and Jormungand the world serpent. Loki would continue his attempts to undermine Asgard until Odin would share the prophecy of Mimir with the other gods while taking all effort to prevent Loki from finding out about it. With the other Asgardian's making him more uncomfortable and more unwelcome then normal and learning that it was due to some sort of prophecy, Loki would secretly visit Mimir to hear it for himself. Hearing Mimir's prophecy put several ideas that Loki would never have thought of on his own in his head. Carrying out these new plans Loki was forced into hiding in an attempt to escape from the wrath of the Asgardian's. Several attempts were made to capture Loki, such as Odin threatening to execute Loki's twin sons if he didn't return; When Loki didn't surrender himself, Odin carried out his threat. Shortly afterwards, Loki was captured. Bound to a tree at the boarders of the worlds to remain until the end of the world, Loki would be captive to a venomous snake that kept spiting insanely painful venom into his eyes and his wife Sigyn (who after the death of her twin sons was deranged enough to make Annie Wilkes proud). Loki would stay there for quite sometime until he was freed from his torment by the Sorceress Gullvieg-Heid to aid her in bringing about the end of Asgard and Ragnarök. Loki, completely consumed by a desire for revenge, agreed. Ragnarök happened shortly afterwards. It is hard to put into words the scale of the worlds being destroyed after the sun and the moon was consumed by the fel wolves, of the pain and bloodshed as brother turned against brother and monsters of all shapes and sizes laid siege to Asgard. It is hard for mere words to do justice to the death of gods and the Chaos that consumed all. While Ragnarök was an end, it wasn't the end. The worlds were reborn and the new came to replace the ruins of the old. A number of Asgardian's didn't actually die during Ragnarök, instead being claimed by the Lord of Chaos and locked away inside of a fortress in the Netherworld. Loki found himself amongst that number since his propose had been fulfilled. Locked in a cell of his own worst fears with a demon personally crafted to ensure that he couldn't escape (Naturally in the shape of a snake) Loki would have completely lost himself to his despair were it not for a single ray of hope. The last few verses of Mimir's prophecy suggested that the worlds would start anew and that, possibly, he might have a chance to escape this torment and start with a clean slate. A flimsy ray of hope maybe, but hope none the less that helped keep Loki relatively sane. Time is not really a factor in the Netherworld (It's the realm of chaos. Rules like time don't really apply there) but after who knows how long of imprisonment and torment Loki found himself freed from his cell and on the world of the Folk (Humans) after a group of young human males calling themselves Young Serbia performed a powerful ritual to try and summon a force of chaos to aid them in freeing Serbia from Austria-Hungary's iron grasp. They were rather successful as it turned out. While he was more than grateful to be free and might have even aided his rescuers on his own accord, the fact that they had used the ritual to bind him to their service irked him greatly. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife and the almost comical series of mishaps that happened on both sides that finally brought the assassination about were very much Loki's doing... And once the task was performed his debt was fulfilled and he was completely free to abandon his liberators to their accepted ends. Before the year was over, Loki was shocked, proud and a little bit horrified at the sheer scale of death and destruction that was sparked off by his actions. The chaos brought about by the 'Great War' was more then enough to restore and sustain Loki for quite a long time, but still he decided to lay low in order to get a feel for the world he now found himself in. If what had quite honestly started off as a minor conflict had resulted in a war so grand in scale that it shook the very world to the core he needed to reign himself in before he found himself standing alone in a Hel like landscape or worse. Over the 98 years that he has been free, Loki has kept a somewhat more subtle existence. In truth, he has rather taken a shine to these cycle of Folk due to their naturally chaotic and intelligent nature; Unlike the worlds of old in which the strongest ruled and were respected, here it was the inventive and the cunning that took point in shaping how things continued on. While Loki is more then willing to slip in the odd joke, most of his work over the years has been dedicated to preventing the Folk from wiping themselves out. The recent raise of Super-humans has actually caught Loki's interest and has offered him the chance to be a bit more open about his existence. [b]Powers and Abilities:[/b] [hider=Powers, Abilities and Weaknesses] Loki is a member of the race of Frost Giants of Jotunheim, although not a giant in stature. He possesses physical attributes equal to a fit member of the race known as the Asgardian Gods, such as enhanced strength; stamina, speed, durability, (his Frost Giant metabolism grants him superhuman levels of physical stamina in practically all activities); durability enough to harmlessly withstand high-caliber bullets; and immunity to all known diseases and toxins, as well as resistance to magic. Loki possesses genius-level intelligence and has extensive training in magic, and possesses the ability to manipulate magical forces for a variety of purposes: energy projection, creation of force fields, temporarily increasing his own physical strength, granting superhuman abilities to living beings or inanimate objects, flight, hypnosis, illusion casting, and inter-dimensional teleportation. Loki's magical abilities have been described as equal to those of Karnilla, the most skilled sorceress of Asgard. His illusion casting can fool cities, and powerful entities such as Surtur. Loki is an adept shapeshifter and can change into animals (examples include transmogrification to a salmon, horse, etc.) or impersonate other people. However, he does not necessarily gain the abilities of whatever he turns into, although minor natural abilities such as flight in bird form tend to work. Loki may mimic the abilities of some supernatural beings if he turn into such creatures. Loki possesses a brilliant intellect, with some knowledge of technology. He is an expert manipulator and schemer, frequently using pawns in his plans. He is sometimes armed with a sword, a whip, or a three-pronged spear and has used magical items to enhance his powers. To the surprise of those who don't know his past all that well, Loki has Ophidiophobia; a fear of snakes. This is something that he keeps very much to himself.[/hider] [b]Sample Story Arcs: [/b] [i]Second Chance with a clean slate:[/i] Loki has been granted something that he had hoped but honestly never expected to get; A second chance at life. With Asgard gone, all of the Asgardian's that he had hated either long dead or rotting in a cell in the Netherworld and after enduring the torment of the Netherworld and his mistakes for countless eons, Loki is rather happy to try a be something deserving of this second chance. [i]Morality is objective:[/i] Loki's idea of morality has never been the most fixed of things, even back when he wasn't plotting and scheming against the powers that be in Asgard. However, the scale of morality that he was raised with is vastly different to the one that is often used by modern cultures of the Folk. Such things can cause friction between himself and the forces of 'Good' [i]Can the scorpion truly change his nature?:[/i] Being a hero and doing good for others without some end goal in mind is... new to Loki. Will he be able to maintain his new found desire to do good or will he fall back into old habits once more? [b]Sample Post:[/b] Despite having had the ability to do so for almost a century, there was nothing quite like laying down on a soft bed and simply... relaxing. As his head sank a little into the pillow, Loki couldn't help he smile a little. If he had to pick only one thing about this new world the Folk had made for themselves that he loved, he would be very hard pressed not to answer finance. The whole system was based on the agreed upon illusion that a piece of paper was equal to an agreed upon amount of gold and that a bank will happily trade that note for the agreed amount of gold on the condition that no one ever asks them to do so. Opening his eyes for a moment and looking around his hotel suite, Loki's silvery grin seemed to grow a little wider. The bedroom alone had already bested the riches and comfits of some of the halls of Asgard herself; The fact that the bastards who had denied him his own hall in Asgard would never be able to enjoy such a thing themselves appealed to the wicked part of Loki's soul and simply made the experience all the better. It didn't even take all that much to secure the room either. A simple illusion so that a machine registered that there was enough illusionary money wasn't all that hard and quite frankly was pretty much what the whole system was based off of anyway. Reaching over for the remote, Loki happily turned on the rather large TV that on opposite the bed. Changing the channel a few times to see what was on he stopped as he came across one of the news networks. The title of the story currently headlining at caught his attention and he couldn't help but settle in to watch. "[i]As police arrived at the scene, dozens of colored men wearing the white robes of the KKK were already dead on the ground as the still living members of the terrorist organization were trying to murder each other, all of them also of color. As police started to round up and arrest the survivors some of them started to recognize the men that they were arresting and they can confirm with the family, friends and video evidence that the suspects had been Caucasian mere hours before the arrest. Medical personal are currently...[/i]" Loki didn't hear the rest of the report because he was to busy laughing and trying to hold in his sides. It was honestly one of the best pranks he had ever pulled. Changing the color of something was a surprisingly easy spell and frankly the reason behind their hatred was just plain stupid and foolish. Wiping away a build up of water around his eyes as his laughter started to slow down, Loki couldn't help but bask in the glow of how good he felt. With a satisfied sigh, he whispered to himself "Life is good."